if you're asking if I'm thrilled to have a 'real president' again who actually loves this country and cares about the people already here and citizens, then 'yes, I'm thrilled!!!'.

and yes, I'm still quite disturbed to find that Hillary's emails contained so much disgusting material about her private life. Many rumours about her for years but it was amazing and sickening to see just how bad the truth really was about her. Also interesting to see that a national pedophile ring was busted the same weekend that Comey let her off of charges for the second time and he led it up. The timing was pretty amazing....

When he said he wants to 'drain the swamp' it wasn't just about politics. He wants those scum gone who felt they needed those little kids for their amusement. I hope he gets rid of ALL the slime and undoes most of what Obama did to us.

No, the Republican healthcare bill does not protect preexisting conditions

That's the bill that they were forced to draft to win the approval of the Freedom Caucus. Moderate Republicans like Fred Upton are thankfully backing away from it because of the lack of coverage for pre-existing conditions.

"Buy it cheap. Stack it deep""Any community that fails to prepare, with the expectation that the federal government will come to the rescue, will be tragically wrong." Michael Leavitt, HHS Secretary.

As Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull flies back to Australia following a meeting with US President Donald Trump, the White House has clarified Mr Trump's comments calling Australia's universal healthcare system "better" than the US system.

The US leader raised eyebrows when he told Mr Turnbull shortly after the bill passed that Australia had "better health care than we do".

But the White House has since clarified those comments, saying the US President was simply saying nice things to an ally and did not think his country should adopt a similar approach.

"The President was complimenting a foreign leader on the operations of their healthcare system. It didn't mean anything more than that," White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said at a news briefing.

"I think he believes that they have a good healthcare system for Australia. What works in Australia may not work in the United States," she said.

Turnbull hails 'history and strength' of alliance

Mr Turnbull described his meeting with Mr Trump — the pair's first meeting since a testy phone call over a refugee deal struck by the Turnbull Government and the Obama administration — as very positive.

He said North Korea, the Islamic State group and global trade were all discussed.

"We talked about the relationship, the alliance — we talked about its history and its strength," Mr Turnbull said.

White House officials said the US-Australia refugee deal still stood, but remained a "raw nerve" for Mr Trump.

The pair also attended a gala dinner commemorating the 75th anniversary of the battle of the Coral Sea, while white house and prime ministerial staff also met separately.

Mr Trump said he would "absolutely" visit Australia as President, with a possible window in November when a series of leadership summits are scheduled in the region, but no dates have been set.

a) this would put the US private health insurance business out of business! These are some of the most powerful corporations in the country, who employ tens of thousands. Aetna, Blue Cross, Humana, etc. would fight to the death to prevent single payer.

b) we would have to tax the rich to pay for this, and they seem to run the whole show over here. Trump's revision of the Affordable Care Act hands a massive tax cut to the wealthy.

c) the American drug companies, who provide most of the advanced drugs worldwide, would not like it either. They have us by the throat, since other countries like Australia negotiate deep discounts for access to their markets. American consumers foot the bill.

We do have an excellent "single payer" prototype in our Medicare system, and if they offered Medicare to anyone with a pre-existing condition, it would go far to help right the ship. However, I don't think we have a chance of doing this without a new administration.

The people who thought the ACA was too radical would probably view a
single payer system as being akin to all-out socialism, carbon. It would
take a huge shift in people's thinking to accept it.

And as
Chuck said, it's become a huge business over here, and the healthcare
providers and their friends in Washington would fight tooth and nail to
prevent the US from adopting a more efficient and cheaper system along
the lines of Australia, the UK and Canada. They effectively managed to
demonize all three in many people's eyes when Obamacare was first being
proposed.

This is the problem right now - you have groups like the Freedom
Caucus who clearly don't understand (or care about) the consequences of
having access to healthcare denied.

"Buy it cheap. Stack it deep""Any community that fails to prepare, with the expectation that the federal government will come to the rescue, will be tragically wrong." Michael Leavitt, HHS Secretary.

I'm not a socialist. But, I could probably be described as a bit pink around the edges.

Your point is a valid one, Carbon. People only usually do things that help themselves. The political movers and shakers take that into consideration.

For instance the heavily taxed rich often move elsewhere and if you rely on them too heavily for your income, you end up out of pocket. But if that taxation is not too ornerous, the effort of moving is too great and you can continue to benefit to a smaller extent. Besides why should anyone try to earn large amounts of money only to have to give it up to help a waste of space?

But an inclusive healthcare system helps everyone. It can drive the costs down because the suppliers have only one purchaser to impress and the pressure to keep their only customer is huge. It removes a gigantic burden from the security services working within the country. There will still be junkies breaking the law to feed their habit, but no one doing an armed robbery to fund their families treatment for "legitimate" illnesses.

In other words, there is a center ground that can keep both sides happy and you just pointed out where it lies. Sadly I cannot see America occupying that space: as JD said there are too many vested interests manipulating the voting system. I am so happy I live here, I am glad for you too, Carbon. I do wish I could help some more of the US's folk though. It is both a sadness and a shame.

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